Heat exchangers, of which there are numerous types, are employed to heat or cool a liquid product. Using, for example, steam or water at different temperatures, it is possible to heat or cool a product, which is preferably liquid to the desired level. Heat exchangers are put into use within various process industries and are also common occurrences within food industries such as, for example, dairies.
One well-known type of heat exchanger is the so-called tube heat exchanger which consists of one or more heat exchanger elements which are interconnected into a flow system. The heat exchanger elements include one or more thermal transfer tubes surrounded by an outer tubular jacket. The thermal transfer tubes are interconnected to form a product flow insert which, in turn, is interconnected by means of product elbow pipes so as to circulate the product which is to be heated or cooled depending upon the process for which the heat exchanger is employed. The thermal transfer tubes lie enclosed in a tubular jacket that surrounds the thermal transfer medium which may consist of water at different temperatures, steam or other types of liquids or gases. This type of heat exchanger is, however, complex and expensive to produce. It requires exact fit of connections, at the same time as demanding a certain degree of play on being mounted in a frame, since the tubes in the heat exchanger are subjected to thermal expansion which may give rise to extreme inner stresses in both tubes and frame.
It has previously proved difficult to produce a modular version of a heat exchanger of the tube type, since each heat exchanger requires its own individual design. A tube heat exchanger of traditional type is complex to assemble and, on replacement of spare parts, extensive dismantling is often required for replacing individual parts.